Odd bicycles and more than words

I saw a man riding a very big unicycle by the river, clad in very padded trousers. I like the way you see some strange sights in a big city. I grew up in the country - no unicycles there (big or otherwise).

I even saw a man riding a penny-farthing bicycle in the city once too. It made me think of the poem by Aussie bush poet Banjo Patterson, Mulga Bill's Bicycle, which I liked when I was a kid.

Not just word games

I discovered tonight that www.freerice.com isn't just about words - you can choose your quiz subject, from topics including geography, maths and science. Cool bananas.

I gave my brain a workout trying to remember the capital cities of the world.


Seen anything odd lately round your way lately?

Helping the hungry through words

It was quiet at work today so I filled in some time donating rice to hungry people through www.freerice.com. For those of you who haven't heard of it, for every word you pick the correct meaning of, the site's advertisers pay for 20 grains of rice to be donated through the UN's food program.

It's quite challenging, even for those who consider themselves to have a pretty good vocabulary (like me), although educated guessing can take you a long way. Today I donated about 4000 grains of rice. Go, me!

What amused me though was a couple of the words that cropped up. The first was 'meshuga'. I had never heard this word until Monday when a friend of a friend mentioned a death metal band he saw called Meshuga. It didn't occur to me that it actually meant anything, but here it was popping up today freerice.com! It means 'crazy'.

The second word was "quotidian". I knew the meaning of this, but had never before stopped to think how pleasing it is that it describes the opposite of what it is - commonplace, usual or occuring daily. Don't know about you, but it's not a word I hear or use often.

Pulchritude is similar - it means physical beauty but sounds like a synonym for ugly or evil.

I also like the word sesquipedalian because it IS what it describes - a long word. It makes me think of my friend Luke, a self-confessed "word nerd" who first told me about it.

Do you know of any other words that have contrary definitions or words that are what they describe (well, apart from onomatopoeia)?

Rain and Stones

How nice is it when you are inside snug on the couch under a blanket and big, fat rain drops are pattering against your windows? We are in the middle of our driest spring ever in southern Australia - and in the grip of a long drought with no end in sight - so rain on the windows is welcome in more ways than one.

More of the Stones

I bought Angus and Julia Stone's album A Book Like This on iTunes last night. I like it a lot. There's some really beautiful guitar and strings on there, particularly in Here We Go Again. I couldn't find a decent video for it, so here's a song called Bella.

Hand claps, furry buds and friends

I have a new favourite song today - Just a Boy by Aussie folkies Angus and Julia Stone. Love the breezy tempo, the harmonica and the hand claps. I have quite a thing for songs with hand claps, come to think of it...

Mmmmm...furry

We have a fresh floral arrangement in the reception area at work each week. This week's has some twiggy things rising out of it with little furry buds on them. They are so soft, like miniscule silvery-green mice. I can't pass by without patting them. The same thing happens with the furry centres of proteas and I may have already mentioned that every time I visit the Botanic Gardens I stroke the Lamb's Ears (below). They are particularly soft and velvety at the moment.

Pals

I went back to work today after my home holiday. It was good to see my friends there again.

What's your favourite song at the moment?

Freaky coincidence number....what am I up to now?

OK, seriously there is some funny business going on. I encountered yet another freaky coincidence last night. Yes! Another one!

I was walking home from a very enjoyable evening of drinks, conversation and late night kebabbery when I passed a guy walking in the opposite direction. A few paces later he called out my name. I turned around and there was the guy with the big red flag over his head from Thursday night! He'd just left a bar nearby.

I ended up having a drink with him, which was fun - certainly more enjoyable than dinner a few nights ago. I was glad to see him again. He's an entertaining guy and we have a few things in common, but he's not a sound emotional investment. I don't want to take any more foolish risks with my heart, at least not just yet.

50 x 2

And then when I was walking home I found another $50 on the ground! You may recall I found a $50 note on the footpath near my house the first week of this blog. Twice in six weeks! Weirdly this time I don't feel bad about profiting from someone's loss, possibly because I'm hanging out for pay day more than usual or maybe because I'm choosing to assume it was dropped by a punter who came home from the Caulfield Cup with a pocket stuffed full of cash. (The Caulfield Cup is the first big race day of Melbourne's Spring Racing Carnival, an annual collision of horseracing, frockery, gambling and falling down drunk in your fanciest get-up.)

How's your weekend been? Anything gleeful?

The dinner and an encounter with a gypsy man

Well, last night's dinner wasn't particularly gleeful, but I suppose I'm bound to blog about it, aren't I?

It was weird and slightly awkward at times and it turned out the zing we had the first time around was mostly absent, plus there was a large red flag waving over his head the whole time telling me to back away from the man and run.

But, that's not to say there was nothing positive about it - any "what ifs" sputtering in dark corners of my brain have now been snuffed out, and that's good. Maybe we'll stay friends, but no more.

Eels and little fish and the gypsy man

I spent the whole afternoon in the gardens today, reading the newspaper in the sun and listening to the bipping of the bellbirds in the trees overhead.

I saw eels swimming in the shallow murky water at the lake's edge (below). They are repulsive creatures but I was pleased to see them as I have a childish fascination with creatures in water (which is why I can't help myself looking for fish in the river when I cross the bridge near my house. Once I saw a whole school!). I also saw a school of teeny, tiny fish in the lake today.

Lots of people were out enjoying the sun - parents with small children, tourists with cameras in hand, other solo readers, young shirtless guys and their girlfriends with midriffs exposed to catch the rays, a group of gambolling primary school kids....and a Spanish cello player with a "gypsy heart".

No, I couldn't tell that just by looking at him. He wandered over to where I was sitting on a seat near the lake and said it was his favourite spot too. We got talking and he sat down and told me a little about himself. Then he told me his "gypsy heart" sensed I was a very passionate person who "wants to eat up everything in life" and made like he was eating corn on the cob as he said it. I have "Pah!", he said, his hands making a 'bursting forth' gesture in front of his face.

He said he's a little psychic and while I was half-thinking, "Yeah right, I've heard that from guys on the take before" (especially when he asked to hold my hand), but then he proceeded to make a few observations about me that were actually pretty spot on.

He picked I was not long out of a difficult period emotionally, that I can be very extreme in my moods (well, I used to be) and that I live in my own little world. He also observed that I had recently changed my hair style...perhaps not earthshattering in his accuracy, but certainly closer to the truth than the psychic I paid $40 to see earlier this year who told me four weeks hence I was going to meet and fall in love with gynaecologist from Beaumaris who enjoys fencing (the en garde! type) in his spare time.

On target

And on top of all of this, I got the nine-letter word in The Age's Target puzzle as soon as I clapped eyes on it. Go, me!

I make myself read the paper before I do the Target puzzle, and sometimes I even forget that it's coming up, which means I get a little "Oooh! Target puzzle!" frisson when I turn the page and see it.

Tonight's the night!

I'm nervously looking forward to dinner with Guy from the Past tonight.

I met him about two and a half years ago and he made a big impression on me then, but he was a shooting star, disappearing into the night sky after three or four dates. So, I'm excited but cautious about seeing him again.

Despite not being entirely sure if it's a date, I bought a new top to wear. I walked up the street in the sunshine and it was nice shopping during the day on a week day. I had most of the shops to myself.

Up the garden path

After I posted the bit above I took myself over to the gardens near my house to distract myself from my nervous anticipation. Too early to get ready...what to do...what to do....

I love the Royal Botanic Gardens - the first glimpse of the ornamental lake sparkling in the sun, the bellbirds calling and the bluestone stairway that leads up to the Temple of the Winds, the highest point in the gardens.

No matter how many times I go there, I always find something new - a new plant or tree, or a little pathway somewhere. Today I saw a kookaburra.